Abstract: A technique for saving bandwidth that is otherwise used by the transmission of continual administrative message traffic in an intranet. A data packet originating from one host computer (18A) and addressed another (18B) is first sent to a local router (16A), which broadcasts a request for the address of the destination node. Another router (16B) local to the destination host (18B) recognizes the destination host in the data packet and supplies a response with the correct address for the destination host. The broadcast request and its response are transmitted over an auxiliary channel, which avoids depleting the bandwidth capacity of the intranet. When the response is received, the local router (16A) associated with the first host computer 18A sets up a switched virtual circuit to the other router (16B), after which the data packet and others following it can be delivered efficiently to the destination host (18B).